The present specification relates to information presentation.
The Internet provides access to a wide variety of resources. For example, video and/or audio files, as well as web pages for particular subjects or particular news articles, are accessible over the Internet. Access to these resources presents opportunities for other content (e.g., advertisements) to be provided with the resources. For example, a web page can include slots in which content can be presented. These slots can be defined in the web page or defined for presentation with the web page, for example, along with search results. After viewing such content, for example, a content consumer may perform various actions, such as interacting with (e.g., clicking) a content item, navigating to a content provider's (e.g., an advertiser's) web site, and/or purchasing a product or service from the content provider. The behavior of content consumers may be simulated to model online activity and purchasing patterns.
Attribution modeling can be used to attribute the actions of content consumers to content items to which the consumers have previously been exposed. In general, attribution models are correlational, and may include position and/or rules-based techniques for attribution. The estimated value (e.g., return on advertising spend) of a campaign (e.g., a marketing campaign) calculated using an attribution model may vary, depending on the type of attribution model used.